Pitch Publishing, £16.99
Reviewed by David Pollock
From WSC 425, October 2022
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Stories
Despite recent problems at both Rangers and Celtic, Glasgow's dominance of Scottish football is unlikely to change soon. Neil White explains
The new Scottish Premier League season marks a depressing anniversary for that competition – it is now 25 years since a team other than the Old Firm won the championship. Since Alex Ferguson led Aberdeen to their third title in six years, in his penultimate season as their manager in 1985, an entire generation of supporters and players have known nothing other than the dominance of Celtic and Rangers.
The home team have suffered in semis, the visitors lost at the last step in Europe and their title challenge has gone awry. One more disappointment is coming to someone in the SPL's Thursday night climax, in front of Dianne Millen
The romance of the cup. Sometimes a welcome distraction from poor league form, sometimes merely a chance for plucky minnows to be patronised, the source of memories we either can’t stop talking about or can’t bear to repeat. In Scotland, where the league is a binary battle, the cup competitions assume greater importance – and while tonight’s game is the league climax, the cups are what has truly defined the season for both teams.
The Willie Miller Story
by Willie Miller with Rob Robertson
Birlinn, £14.99
Reviewed by Neil Forsyth
From WSC 256 June 2008
For the uninitiated, Willie Miller is not a mafia overlord but a long-standing servant of Aberdeen, also known as the Dons. Miller played for the club for 19 years, before a spell as manager and his current post as director of football.
Alex Ferguson has achieved so much in his two decades at Old Trafford – but what happened to the club he left behind? Keith Davidson charts how Aberdeen were undone by Old Firm cash
This month marks the 20th anniversary of Alex Ferguson’s move to Manchester United, so it’s a safe bet that newspapers and television will be full of glowing features, plus the odd dour analysis of whether he has outstayed his welcome. Few will dwell on the club that Fergie left behind, or what has happened to it over the last couple of decades, but the subsequent fate of Aberdeen does chime in with wider changes in Scottish football.